So what’s this cool idea for Black Friday?

Gift Cards

Okay, you’re not impressed.  Let me tell you how you can use these gift cards on the most powerful shopping day of the year to get some immediate money AND generate potentially hundreds of new extra members at the beginning of the New Year.

First, put a big white board or announcement sign very visible in your lobby right now.  That sign will say:

“Special Black Friday Sale!
90% off sale!!!  Can’t think of what to get everyone?  Don’t want
to fight the lines Friday morning?  Get $100 Gift Cards to
XYZ Fitness for only $10!  One day only!  No limits!  Give these as
stocking stuffers or gifts for all of your friends, family, and
favorite co-workers!”

(…or similar)

Then what I suggest you do is run a report of all members who have used your club over the previous 30 days.  These are the “hot” members who will most likely buy.

Give this list to your front desk staff and have them make calls. Depending on the size of your club, you’ll likely have 100-1000 different members who have used the club in the past 30 days.  Your front desk staff will say something like:

“Hi John, this is Lindsay with XYZ Fitness.  How are you!  Did you happen to notice the Black Friday sign we put in the lobby this week? It’s a special member appreciation sale and we are offering $100 gift cards to give as Christmas gifts and it’s only $10 for members.  Non-members pay the full $100.  The sign says it’s for one day only, but I decided to call a few of our best members and let you pre-order as many as you want so you don’t have to make a special trip here on Friday.

How many can I reserve for you?”

Now you might think…forget that!  I plan to sell a few of these at full price to unsuspecting walk ins.  If you feel this way, then send me your address and I’ll have my people come over and break your thumb.

First of all, you’re going to make some initial money on this thing.  Many members will buy several at a time.  I would guess that an average size club can sell 100 of these if you follow the system above.  That’s $1,000 quick bucks right there.

Then if 100 of these are given out at Christmas, the majority of those will make their way back into your club.  Think about it…if I gave you a gift certificate for $100, even if it’s to some place you had never purchased from, you would NOT throw it away and you would likely use it or give it to someone else to use.  Right?  Right.

Let’s just say only 50 come in with a gift card…nah, let’s say only 25.  Let’s assume your membership is $40/month and they have 11 more payments after their complimentary month.  That is $11,000 in dues plus the $1,000 you collected from members for the actual gift card.  I don’t know about you, but I’ll take $12k for one day’s work!

And what does this $100 go toward?  Enrollment fees and first month dues.  Let’s assume you have a low enrollment fee of $49 and your monthly dues are low too at $25/month.  So in this case the gift card will cover enrollment fee and their first two months.  Great!!

If I told you I would send you 100 prospects and they would all join if you give them no enrollment and their first two months f’ree on a 12-month membership, and you didn’t have to spend any money or effort or time on marketing…you would do it right?  Right.  (again, if you would not do this, I’ll have my people visit you again to break your other thumb)

Now what about these gift cards?  When they pay you, let them know you’re going to order them after you find out how many everyone wants.  This allows you to have their money in hand, so the cost of the gift cards are covered by the money they paid you.

And where do you get these fitness gift cards?

Call Chris Batchelor with Vitality Marketing Group at 1-866-273-9217 and he’ll get you set up with full color, customized, sexy plastic gift cards (look and feel just like a credit card, with a mag stripe on the back!)

500 gift cards are $199
1,000 gift cards are only $50 more at $249

This should allow you extra that you can give to new members for them to refer friends.  Making the effect of this marketing system exponentially more successful.  Gift cards will take around 2 weeks to arrive to you, so be sure to order them as soon as your Black Friday sale is over so you have them in time for Christmas!

If you have any questions about this strategy, click the COMMENT button on this page and let me know…or GymSuccess members can post for a more detailed discussion at www.GymSuccess.com

Dedicated to Your Success…

Curtis Mock

A friend and client, Ross Wilson just ran a direct mail marketing campaign for his health club in October and asked me to critique his direct mail layout before he sent it out to the public.

With just a few simple tweaks, he ended up generating:

334 New 12-month health club memberships

Raised $3,340 for the National Breast Cancer Foundation

Grossed $144,540 in total health club membership sales

Received A LOT of publicity for his health club

He ran a similar health club marketing campaign last October and generated only 116 new memberships.  I can’t take credit for this because Ross is a pretty sharp guy and already had a solid design that probably would have sold a lot of health club memberships even without any tweaks.  But for the sake of my ego, I’ll pretend I had something to do with his success

Here are some of the tweaks Ross made that helped him generate so many memberships:

1.  Ross chose a price driven theme.  He wanted prospects to know that they can save $100 and that the health club would donate $10 for every membership sold.  But he had some mixed messages.  He needed a stronger WIIFM (what’s in it for me) message.  Instead of “Membership Special”, he chose “Feel Fit & Look Fabulous” and “Save $100 and we will make a donation to the National Breast Cancer Foundation”.

2.  His layout was very busy and it was tough for the eyes to know where to look.  Ross cleaned it up and made bolder headlines, added a round banner ad and left a bit more white space on the card to make it easier on the eyes.

3.  There were multiple pictures of a similar looking lady.  That takes up too much valuable real estate on the mailer where you could put more fitness sales copy or allow for more white space so that the message is clear and the eyes know where to go.

4.  The headline was made bolder and bigger.  It needs to present a reason for someone to read the remainder of the message on the mailer.

5.   On the original, he had “membership specials only apply to ___ and ___ memberships”.  We removed this because you don’t want to make people feel that you are limiting them or even forcing them into a big ticket health club membership package.  The key to a mailer is to get them to take action.  Period.  Don’t tell them about restrictions on your first impression.  If there are very important restrictions, put an asterisk on it and at the bottom state “In some cases, restrictions may apply” or similar.

6.  We changed from a specific expiration date of October 31, to a “Hurry!  Limited Time Offer expires in two weeks.  So Call Today!”

And that’s it!  I’ve watched and tested the result of hundreds of health club direct mail and other print marketing campaigns over the years and it is amazing how just a few simple tweaks can make the difference between a failed campaign and an uber successful campaign.

So when you are designing your fitness postcards for the New Year, remember the BIG 5 things you MUST have on your mailer.

1. Powerful Headline
2. Call to Action
3. Single Message
4. Urgency
5. Uniqueness

And if you have room on the mailer, some social proof (testimonial, success story, before and after picture, etc) are very very powerful.

Dedicated to Your Success…

Curtis Mock

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::NEW::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Okay, so after 3 hours of fooling with this thing, I figured out how to post the original he sent.  You’ll just have to use your imagination for some of the changes above lol.  Hopefully it is clear enough to view!

Whew, that was painful.  I tried and tried to get the newest one with the applied changes to post in here, but the format isn’t accepted.  I tried converting and still no luck.  But what this original mailer shows that you don’t need a flashy, bold color card.  With just some basic tweaks on the sales copy, a fairly plain mailer can have some pretty extraordinary results.

A friend of mine whom I haven’t spoken to in a few years sent me an email a few days ago.  Her name is Beth, and as it turns out, she has been a personal trainer now for the last 3 years.  She works within a facility as a staff trainer.

It is obvious that she is passionate about what she does and she wants to be the very best she can be…and more importantly, make the most she can make for herself and for the studio.

Her concerns were typical.  She knows she is limited with one-on-one personal training, she doesn’t know how effective her marketing is, and she wants to create ancillary streams of revenue…specifically in her area of interest: Nutrition.

Here is a summary of my comments to her…hopefully you too can find something here that helps you too increase PT revenue.
–

As for maximizing dollar per hour worked, I agree…there is a definite ceiling on your earning potential which is directly attributable to the fact that there are only so many hours you can physically work.  One of the biggest complaints of PT’s is that to maintain their current income level, they have to continue working 4am-8pm every day.

That’s no fun.  So there are really only two solutions:

1) Train more people at once.  This is why group training and bootcamps are so popular.  You can make exponentially more money training more people at once.  It’s cheaper per client, but more profitable for you since you’re training more people at once.  I’m not sure what the layout of your gym or your parking lot, etc is like, but bootcamps are ridiculously hot right now.

Many experts agree that one on one training is a dying business model.  Yes, there will be people who prefer the one on one attention, but there are far more who appreciate the discount and even the ability to share the experience with others.

And 2) Sell more ancillary products/services to your clients.  This can include selling nutritional products, online personal training, nutritional counseling, life coaching, grocery shopping services, meal plans, etc.

As for marketing, how much are you doing? A flyer here or there isn’t going to cut it.  You need to have multiple marketing poles in the water at all times.  Go to chamber meetings, visit with local business owners, set up events for charity, speaking events, write for the paper/newsletters, door hangers, referrals from existing clients, etc.  You must always have marketing working for you every minute of every day.

Consider niching your service.  If you start a group training class, don’t do one for whoever signs up.  Do one for expectant mothers, new mothers, lunchtime warriors, teenagers, older adults, employees of a particular business, gastric bypass patients, arthritic people, back problems, children, toning class, core class, abs class, etc.

Focus on a specific group of people and be a big fish in a very small pond rather than a small fish in a very big pond.

Aim small, miss small

Network with other successful personal trainers.  I am in two mastermind groups, because the information I take away is more valuable than the amount I pay.  Join a website like www.personaltrainerU.com.  It’s run by very good friends of mine in the industry.

Go to events in the industry.  You just missed a great one for personal trainers called Fasttrack to Fitness Millions. I’ll let you know when another good one is coming up.  There are definitely some that are not worth the money.

Communicate with clients and prospects often.  Send out an email newsletter to your list.  GET A BLOG!  Promote yourself as THE expert in your area.  Dominate Google for Personal Trainers in your city.

You said you don’t know how effective your flyers were for your open house/group training.  This is important to do.  You must always know what marketing is successful and what marketing is not.  Otherwise you’re just going to be throwing shit against the wall and hoping that something sticks.  Never a good strategy.

Always ask what marketing brought them to you.  Then make a note of it…simple as that!
Feel free to call me to catch up or if you have other questions.

My cell is 573…
(Okay,did you think I’d really give out my cell phone on a blog post?)

Anyway, hopefully you can find something helpful in this.

Dedicated to Your Success…

Curtis Mock

Okay, so here’s the deal.  There are no more gut wrenching words to have to say than “I Quit”.  No one ever wants to quit.  It makes you feel weak and miserable, and most of us push on, or we live with the guilt.

So I wish I could say this was my idea, but I stole it from a member of my Master Mind Group.  My good friend B.J. Bliffert, who runs a facility in Wisconsin with his wife Kori, has what I consider hands down the best personal training cancellation policy I have ever seen.

B.J. requires a 30 day written notice to cancel a membership and it must be hand written (pretty standard right?).  but here’s the kicker.  They have to personally hand it to their personal trainer and say the words, “I Quit”.  Texts and e-mails are not acceptable and it states this in the agreement the client signs.

Pretty sweet right?

Can you imagine the gut wrenching feeling to have to say I Quit…I give up on my goal of losing weight, I admit defeat and admit that I don’t have the fortitude to persevere.  I admit to you that I am a Quitter.

I get a little queasy just thinking about it.  That is a gut wrenching moment to say the least.  And they have no choice but to do it.  It would take a whole heckuva lot to get me to admit to someone that I quit.  I’d probably just keep paying even if I didn’t continue showing up just so I don’t have to say those words!

If I were you, I would add this to your PT agreement right away…

Dedicated to Your Success…

Curtis Mock

P.S. Are you a member of GymSuccess.com yet?  You’ll find hundreds of tips like the one above as well as videos, audios, resources, as well as a discussion board to ask other health club owners what is working and what is not.  You can try it out for $1 for 30 days to make sure it’s right for you by going to www.GymSuccess.com

Do you have members or PT clients who have lost weight, overcame illness, or feel more alive after exercising at your club? 

Of Course You Do! 

We all know of members who have overcome the odds, or lost 50 pounds, or fit into a size 4 again or can make it up the stairs without shortness of breath.  Everyone at your club who has improved their health, image, or overall well being is a walking talking billboard!

There are several ways you can share these success stories with your prospects.

1.     Print Marketing:  Use a testimonial along with a picture or perhaps a before and after picture in all of your print marketing efforts.  Prospects are much more likely to read about someone who lost weight and feels great thanks to your club, rather than some boring old ½ off enrollment fee coupon.

2.     Online marketing:  Make sure to have lots and lots of testimonials on your website.  If you have before and after pictures, these are very powerful.  I would recommend even using video and audio testimonials to offer even more interactive ways for your web visitors to see what they can expect as a member of your club.

3.     Internal marketing:  Your current members may not even be aware the success stories of those who invest in personal training.  Make sure you have   some testimonials and pictures throughout your club.  Make sure to put a new picture and testimonial up every couple of weeks so the other members will see that there are several people getting amazing results. 

4.     Lead boxes:  A before and after picture along with a “Want to feel as good as Sharon?  Enter your information to receive a complimentary 2 week membership to XYZ Fitness” is one of the more powerful lead box strategies I’ve ever seen. 

5.     Billboard, TV, Radio:  If these are mediums that will work in your market, then make sure you are using pictures and testimonials.  It is so difficult to generate a direct response from these marketing mediums, but you can maximize your efforts with powerful social proof that “XYZ Fitness has helped others, and can help you too!”

6.     Wall of Fame:  Find or create a bare wall in a high traffic area of your club.  Set up a clean, professional looking wall of fame for your members who have experienced great success.  You can collect testimonials and before and after pictures to post on your wall.  Your members will feel appreciated and your prospects will be blown away and ready to sign up before you ever present prices.

7.     Success Book:  Similar to the Wall of Fame, fill up a three ring binder with lots of success stories of your members.  This is a great tool to hand a guest if they have to wait a couple of minutes for you to finish a tour or sign up another member.  They will likely be sold on your club before you even say a word.

Social proof such as testimonials and pictures are the most powerful forms of marketing you can use at your health club.  It doesn’t matter what type of marketing: internal, external, guerrilla, internet, etc…Seeing the success stories of others will ALWAYS help you sign up more members and more personal training clients.

Dedicated to your success…

Curtis Mock

It is my hope that all of you are capturing email addresses from your members and sending them information weekly, or at least monthly.  If you aren’t doing this, you should stop reading this now and sign up for an autoresponder program.  Then collect all of  your member email addresses and begin sending them regular updates  and information.

If you already communicate with your members, here is another important way to maximize your efforts.  Many club owners only focus on sending information to current members.  Make sure you capture email addresses from your hot, warm, and even cold leads as well.

By hot leads, I mean the people that come into your club interested in a membership.  If you don’t close the sale the first day, you need to put them into your email autoresponder system and send them emails about the benefits of the club, success stories, fitness tips, etc.  You must remain relevant and in the forefront of their mind.  Each email will serve as a reminder that they need to get back in and join.

Warm leads are email addresses you’ve received through lead boxes, health fairs, and other community events.  These are people who have expressed at least a moderate level of interest.  They are people who would like more information from you to decide if they want to join a health club.  By sending regular, timely, and valuable information, when these leads are ready to join, they won’t even consider one of your competitors because you’ve been thoughtful enough to send them information.

Cold leads are email addresses you have in your possession, of people who have never expressed interest in your club.  For example, when you join the Chamber of Commerce, you have access to the email addresses of all other Chamber members.  Though they have never raised their hand requesting more information, because of your mutual tie to the chamber, they will likely be open to receiving information from you.  You will need them to opt into your newsletter list, so it would be a good idea to offer an irresistable offer and contact the person to introduce yourself prior to sending. 

So begin collecting email addresses from everywhere…but you MUST use them.  Just having the email address does you no good.  And you must send emails to your prospects, not just your current members.  Automate your marketing at no extra cost by sending a Fitness Tip of the Week, your monthly newsletter, and occasional promotions to your prospects  through an autoresponder system.  You will find more cold and warm prospects becoming HOT prospects, and you’ll find more hot prospects becoming members.

Dedicated to Your Success…
Curtis Mock

If you are new to my philosophies, then here is one you should go ahead and permanently plant in your memory…

What matters is NOT how many members you have, but rather how much money you generate per member

It seems health clubs always focus on getting new members in the door.  And while I firmly believe you should always be marketing and always adding new members, those are far less important than getting current members more involved in all that you have to offer. 

Here are three great ways to generate more money per member at your health club:

1.  Allow members to try your “fee based” services for free

Promote to your members at various times that they can try out certain programming for f’ree.  Then while they are enjoying the service (bootcamps, personal training, child care, tanning, massage, spinning, etc) allow them, for a limited time, to get an intro package at a discount.  So now not only have you gotten them into the “mouth of the funnel” by letting them try it for free, you’re letting them slide further into your sales funnel with a discount.  By the time their intro package is up, they’ll gladly pay full price because they have experienced how great the service is! 

2.  Sell some type of online programming to your members

There are a few systems out there, but nothing to write home about.  One of my long time clients, Ben Howard, set about creating a powerful solution for health clubs recently.  You can see more at www.atlasfitness.net.  His program provides your members an Interactive Weight Tracker, Fitness Calendar & Diary, Diet Analysis, workout plans, videos, calorie tracker, fit tips, recipes, and tons of cool techy features that help keep your members involved.  You can also sell advertising to your local businesses, capture online leads, sell things on your website, and create a reward program for your members.  AND it can be customized to be branded for your club!  Very cool system, and a very cool way to offer an upsell at the point of sale when the new member is most motivated.  You could easily charge each member $5 or $10 to have access to the system.  Do the math, it is a great profit center.

3.  Ask for the sale

Does that sound simple or what?  You will never make a sale if you don’t ask for the sale.  For example, let’s say you run a special on tanning.  Offer every single new member at the point of sale a one-time-only tanning special for new members only.  Let’s say it is $9/month for the term of their membership, normal price $20/month.  Of course you don’t really want to sell tanning for $9…but the MAJORITY of people who take you up on this offer will Never tan.  They bought only because it was an unbelievable offer, available for a limited time.  And would you rather make an extra $9 per month or an extra $0 per month? 

Similarly, your front desk staff has to be more proactive about asking members to buy things.  Here are some things your front desk can ask your members:

“Did you want a healthy snack for the ride home from the gym?  I can put it on your account!”

“You look tired today, would you like an energy drink?”

“We’ve missed you!  You know we have a special 3 PT sessions for $99.  Can I sign you up with one of the trainers to get you back on track?”

“You look nice and tan!  Are you tanning anywhere right now?  Would you like me to set you up on our Unlimited Tanning Special for only $20/month?”

“I am so proud of how much progress you’ve made!  You are our perfect role model here at the gym.  Did you have any friends I can send a complimentary 30 day membership to?”

The bottom line is you need to have more things you can upsell to your members.  If you don’t have many services, utilize something like the www.AtlasFitness.net service above.  There are always ways to generate more money per member, sometimes you have to get creative, but most times you just have to ask!

Dedicated to Your Success…

Curtis Mock

Show your health club members you appreciate them by sending them Thank You and Greeting Cards on a regular basis.  Don’t think of it as a cost, think of it as an investment in retention.  Nothing, and I repeat nothing works as well to solidify your relationship with your members than a hand written card!  

You may already send these, but I guarantee you are not utilizing this amazing strategy as often as you should.  Thank you cards or greeting cards are one of the most powerful things you can do to increase retention rates at your health club.  

Think about it.  When was the last time you received a thank you card for shopping somewhere?  It doesn’t happen often.  So be the health club that thanks members and they will thank you in return for your thoughtfulness.  Let’s take a look at my Top 10 times when you should send a card.

* When they join.  An absolute must!  Begin filling it out the moment they leave.  Put it in the mailbox immediately.  They need to receive this within 48 hours.

* When they sign up for programming.  Boot camps, PT, etc.

* When they’ve been at your gym with you for 6 months.  A halfiversary! Statistics show on average members will stay with you only 7 months…let them know you’re thinking of them at month 6.

* Special occasions & Holidays.  Your club’s anniversary, Christmas is a must, when you host an event, just because.  Let your health club members know you care!

* Events in their lives.  Birthday is a must.  New baby, promotion, marriage, etc.

* Apologize:  When you screw up…if you double bill them, if their favorite machine is broken, if your staff was inattentive, if a particular class was taken off the schedule, etc.  Let them know you’re sorry.  Written words are very meaningful!

* When they refer a friend to your gym.  Don’t think that just because you gave them their free month that your job is done.  Send them a thank you card with 3 more referral cards for them!

* When they renew their gym membership.  Give them a gift when they make the decision to stick with you.  It’s likely they have many other fitness options in your community and you should be thankful that they decided to stick with you.

* When they cancel.  Though it might seem strange to willingly spend money on someone who just decided not to spend money with you.  By sending a “no hard feelings” card, guess where they’ll come when they decide to join a health club again…

* When they’ve been canceled for 3 months.  As long as they didn’t move out of the area, I recommend sending them a “We want you back” card and a follow up phone call.

This is such an easy strategy to implement, and it gives your front desk staff something to do during their down time!  The power of written word is very powerful.  Begin sending cards and watch your members stay longer and spend more.

Dedicated to your Success…

Curtis Mock

Over the last 30 years, the majority of health club owners have been people with a love for fitness, but traditionally lacked business acumen. But due to the large demand for fitness and the lack of competition, they survived. 

Times are changing.

Competition at health clubs is fierce, the economy presents its own set of considerations, and club owners are forced to understand the numbers behind their business.

Health club owners with little to no business knowledge are not nearly as prevalent these days.  Now it seems the majority of new owners are those with business knowledge, who are learning the fitness side of the business, or hiring someone who already has fitness experience.

But there are still a lot of those fitness-minded club owners who have always been able to run a successful business simply because the demand for fitness has allowed them to run a loose business and continue making money.

These health club owners are now in trouble.

If you don’t know how to forecast revenue, how to monitor trends from revenue reports, how to set goals, how to use Quickbooks or you can’t understand what your accountant tells you, then you need to make some changes.

Ignorance is not an excuse, it is a recipe for failure.  Now is when you need to understand your numbers.  I’m not saying that numbers are more important than taking care of your members, after all we are in a service industry.  But you Absolutely must know the basics.

If you can’t understand your Profit and Loss Statement or you don’t understand how to forecast revenues, there are a couple things you can do:

First, join www.GymSuccess.com (I truly believe this will help you very quickly. There are club owners and club pros who can help with everything you need).

Second, Go to Amazon.com and buy the book “The Business of Fitness” by Thom Plummer.

Third, contact your chamber of commerce and get a copy of the community classes and seminars offered in your city.  Or do a google search for “My City Seminars”.  Sign up for a course on basic accounting or business finance.

The bottom line is that health club owners can no longer be entirely fitness focused.  You absolutely must understand the numbers.  Even if you outsource your book keeping and accounting, and you have a manager to oversee expenses, payroll and revenues, you as the owner must keep your finger on the financial pulse of your club.

Dedicated to your Success…

Curtis Mock

You’ve heard me preach about how amazing having an autoresponder system is to a business. And perhaps you have signed up for a system like Aweber already, but aren’t sure the best way to utilize it for your health club. Here is how I advise our clients to use Aweber. Utilize some of these, or all of these…either way you are going to benefit your business and develop stronger loyalty with your members.

2. Then you need to set what’s called a Follow Up for the instant they click the confirmation link. It can have an attachment, it can take them automatically to a page on your website with the coupon, or it can simply be text stating “Please print this email and bring it into the club within 48 hours to pick up your membership.” Or similar.

3. I would then set up a Follow Up for the next day to remind them: “Did you have a chance to stop in yesterday to pick up your complimentary membership at XYZ Health Club? Be sure you stop by any time today to pick it up. We’re open Monday-Friday 4am-10pm, and Saturday and Sunday 8am-8pm. Call and let us know if you need a little more time. Our phone number is 555-555-5555. We can’t wait to help you reach your fitness goals!” Or similar.

4. Add a New Follow Up Message, and have 52 separate follow ups on that list, one sent each week. I would write a “fitness tip of the week”. So sit down one weekend and come up with 52 fitness tips…they don’t have to be long or detailed, just something simple. For example, “A great tip to stop those late night cravings is to brush your teeth the moment you are feeling like you need those carbs. If you start thinking about that bag of chips or box of cookies, brush your teeth! Cookies taste horrible after you brush your teeth!”…A Fit Tip from your friends at XYZ Health Club

It took me 30 seconds to write that one. So you could have all 52 written within a couple of hours for sure. I would have all subscribers, members AND prospects receive an automated follow up every seven days from that “Fit Tips” Follow Up List.

5. Your Monthly Newsletter, Announcements, or other miscellaneous things you want to tell your list(s), you will do with what is called a “Broadcast”. This is how my Gym Goldmine newsletter is sent.  You would do the same thing. If you have separate lists for Personal Training clients, and Club Members, and Prospects, etc. Send whatever announcements or news as a Broadcast any time you want to communicate with them. I would make sure to send your monthly newsletter to Prospects as well. At some point they will make the decision to join a club, and since you’re the one nice enough to make them feel like they’ve always belonged, they will join your club without a doubt.

And that is exactly how I would set up my Aweber system. You can even go back in and cross reference those who have joined your email list from your website and the names of new members since that date. If someone hasn’t joined, have one of your salespeople take their email address and send them a personal email to invite them into the club or to ask what it would take to get them in.

**A few bonus tips that work really well**

Always have a P.S. in your message. Many times people are in a hurry. They will read your opening paragraph, scan through any bolded text in your email, and skip to the P.S.  For some reason, people like reading the P.S.

Set aweber so that the person the email is delivered from is your health club name, not your personal name. I know you receive emails from Curtis Mock, but that’s because I want you to remember me until the day you die If I were sending to prospective gym members, it would come from the Gym’s name, so that they will always remember your gym’s name!

When you customize your emails and use someone’s name at the top, use the function {firstname_fix}, not just {firstname} in Aweber. Some of your prospects may have put their first and last name in the field provided, or perhaps they didn’t capitalize thier first initial. Aweber will “fix” it for you and use only the first name and make sure it is capitalized.

Never add people to your list that have not asked to be on your list. This is very important. If you get caught doing this, your Internet Service Provider can have you shut down. It’s no joke.

Even though no one really likes them, it is a good idea to put a pop up form on your website. Aweber calls these “Web Forms”. But make sure you set it only to appear once per day or once per visitor. You don’t want this thing popping up every time they go to a new page on your website. Again, Aweber makes this very simple for you.

Remember, I can’t even spell html. So Aweber uses a WYSIWYG editor. That stands for What You See Is What You Get. Meaning even us dumb jocks can use Aweber successfully!

That’s it for today. Hopefully this answered a lot of your questions!

Dedicated to your Success…
Curtis Mock